


For The Duration

by The_Fenspace_Collective



Series: Candle In The Dark: A Peculiar Saga of the Sea of Time [5]
Category: BattleTech: MechWarrior, Fenspace
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-31
Updated: 2014-03-31
Packaged: 2018-01-17 18:16:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1397740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Fenspace_Collective/pseuds/The_Fenspace_Collective
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Natalie Fischer and her Fusiliers took a job for the lord of Port Krin in search of an easy payday. What they found was a fight way outside their pay grade. Actions have consequences, and it's time for the Fusiliers to pay the piper...</p>
            </blockquote>





	For The Duration

**Michigan 36th District Court, Detroit, Michigan, USA**  
 **15 January 3021**

The courtroom was a little shabby, probably because there’d been a huge mech battle last month about two blocks away and the locals were still cleaning up. Natalie Fischer, formerly commander of Fischer’s Fusiliers and now, well, she wasn’t sure what she was at this point. Probably not a unit commander anymore: most of the Fusiliers had survived the battle and the bombing of the _Jolly Roger_ , but she didn’t know much more than that. Almost certainly dispossessed, considering she hadn’t seen her Warhammer since the end of the battle. Maybe a convict? That remained to be seen.

She and her lance, as The Guys Responsible For Trashing Downtown, were sitting together at the defendant’s table waiting for the judge to come in and pronounce sentence. They’d talked it over between themselves. In the end, throwing themselves on the mercy of the court sounded like the quickest way out of this mess. After all, they _did_ help out during the fight _and_ gave the authorities what they wanted. 

Maybe they’d walk away free after all. Dispossessed and without much in the way of kit, sure, but it’s a start. Besides, from what little Natalie and the crew had picked up from the jailhouse video (cheap bastards couldn’t afford a proper HV either, all flatscreens) it sounded like retaliation was in motion. The Fusiliers had a few axes to grind with Port Krin too, after this royal clusterfuck of a mission, and mechwarriors with axes to grind worked cheap.

Natalie looked around the courtroom. The place was packed, mostly by reporters - again, being The Guys Responsible For Trashing Downtown, their not-quite-trial was News. A few other locals were in attendance, probably looking to see justice done, or maybe just gawkers wanting a look at real, live Spheroids. In the far corner Natalie saw two locals in unusual uniforms, all shades of gray with gold piping. One was male, and had the classic cap-pulled-low thing going for him. Natalie couldn’t quite make out his face but he seemed familiar. The other one was a woman in late middle age, brownish hair going gray and looked a lot like every terrifying schoolmarm Natalie had ever known during her education. She locked eyes with the ex-mechwarrior for a brief second, and Natalie felt the urge to apologize for everything bad she’d done since elementary school.

The moment ended as the back door opened and the judge walked out. The bailiff called for everybody to stand, sit, not you defendants you guys stay up. The judge also reminded Natalie of a cranky instructor, this one the older mechwarrior who’d trained her back in the day. She wondered idly if the judge might’ve been a mechjock at some point.

“Natalie Fischer, Oksana Tabayama, Richard Ogoonu, Mister…  Brox,” the judge stumbled a bit at the last name. “You have pled guilty to charges of attempted manslaughter, reckless endangerment, conspiracy to commit theft, conspiracy to commit vandalism, and a number of secondary charges that honestly read more like the last twenty minutes of _The Blues Brothers_ than a coherent list of charges. I am impressed. I’ve been a judge in this city for a long long time, and now I think I can say I’ve seen everything. The normal sentence for these charges is no less than thirty consecutive years in state prison. Per charge. You’re looking at a couple hundred years each for this.”

Natalie swallowed hard. Okay, prison couldn’t be that bad, right? She was still young, and more resourceful than these neobarb hicks. Breaking out probably wouldn’t be so tough, though finding a good place to lay low might be tricky.

“ _However_ ,” the judge continued. “Because of your actions during the attack on this city, including the defense of this Court, I have decided to sentence each of you to community service.” The court buzzed with low murmuring, some confused, some angry and some a mix of the two. “This service will be for the duration of the emergency, or a maximum of thirty years. Your equipment will remain in the custody of the Detroit City Police Department. Court adjourned.” The judge banged his gavel once, stood up and quickly departed. The crowd behind them looked a little confused, but that was fine since the Fusiliers weren’t far behind them. What the _hell_ kind of judge sentences _community service_ for a raid on a city?

Oksana looked a little pole-axed by the decision, but rallied gamely. “Boss, I think it’s time we got out of here,” she said. Dick and Brox nodded in unison.

“Thirty years of community service? We gotta get off this rock.” he said. Brox added a few gestures that Natalie interpreted as agreement with a few choice bits of Anglo-Saxon appended.

“Oh, I don’t know,” a new voice said. “You might find that community service agrees with you.” The Fusiliers looked up and saw that Thing One in gray had stopped in front of the defendant’s table. He pulled off the face-hiding cap and lo and behold, Burgess Hale stood before them. “Well, Fischer, congratulations on beating the rap.”

“Hale? What are you doing here?”

“The job calls,” Hale drawled.

“Making sure the mean nasty pirates get thrown in a hole?” Oksana growled.

“Nah.” Hale offered his hand. “Meet your new community service supervisor.”

The silence was thundering. Natalie shook her head. “ _You?_ ” she said, incredulous. “How in the hell did you manage to swing that?”

“It wasn’t his idea,” a new voice said. Natalie saw the scary schoolteacher lady in the same uniform as Hale step up. “Introduce us, Colonel,” she said to Hale.

“Yes’m. Captain Fisher, Mechwarriors Tabayama, Ogoonu and Brox, this is your new god now and forever. Commander Luckwold, Fischer’s Fusiliers.”

Luckwold smiled thinly. “A pleasure, of course. We’ll arrange transfer for your battlemechs and the rest of your people as soon as we can. For now, Colonel Hale is in command.” She turned and marched off, leaving the Fusiliers confused and more than a little stunned in her wake. As she reached the courtroom door, she paused and turned back.

“Welcome to XCOM, ladies and gentlemen.”


End file.
